The Integrated Management Plan for the Fox River Watershed in Illinois 
includes the following strategy under the Water Quality Action Area:

Develop strategies to preserve and enhance ground and surface water quality
and quantity, in order to provide for adequate drinking water supplies
and natural habitat within the Fox River Watershed.

To this end, FREP water quality activities will focus on the following:

● Define, expand and integrate data collection and research on Fox River water quality and quantity by municipalities, community organizations and state agencies.
 ● All streams achieve B or better rating (Index of Biotic Integrity)
● Identify, protect and manage surface and groundwater, educate public about their importance and what impacts groundwater
● Preserve and enhance drinking water supplies from surface and groundwater sources
● Identify funding and sources of support
FREP's Strategic Plan for 2002-05 charges the Water Resources Committee to:
 Develop a basin-wide water resource plan (through the following actions):   
       A.  Partner with other groups or agencies presently working on water resource issues.
      B. Develop a Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) for the entire watershed.
       C. Develop water budget (quantity).          
Sierra Club's Water Testing Data for the Fox River
Water Quality Fact Sheets

Two internships, funded by an IEPA 319 grant, have been created to inventory a number of streams in the Fox River Watershed this summer. Lori Hron of Naperville, a senior environmental science major at Purdue University, and Mark Meyer of Lombard, a senior geography and environmental science major at Augustana College, have been chosen to fill these positions. It is hoped that the end result of their work will be a list of possible sites to restore/preserve with future state/federal money, as well as data to assist subwatershed groups in developing a Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP). The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) has been given the task of moving the WIP forward and, along with FREP’s Water Quality Committee, is coordinating this stream inventory project.

Lori and Mark will be looking at streambank and stream bed condition (erosion, vegetation), riparian land use, outfalls, turbidity, sinuosity, and many other attributes. They will be using a GPS (geographical positioning system) to denote the location of important features (e.g., severe bank erosion, point sources) and will document them using a digital camera as well. A database of information will be developed. Following a prioritized list of streams developed by the FREP Water Quality Committee, it is hoped that more than 100 miles can be inventoried this summer. Blackberry, Nippersink, Boone, and Poplar Creeks are among this summer’s inventory goals.


Interns conduct stream inventory during Summer 2002